*Jimoh Ibrahim: His antecedents and why he is a blessing for Ondo South*
By Martins Fasusi
As the 2023 elections campaign commences nationwide based on the time table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerians, the people of Ondo State, and Ondo South Senatorial District in particular, need to know the antecedents and abilities of individual candidates of various political parties contesting the polls.
Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim ( CFR), the Senatorial Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ondo South Senatorial District, is a man whose success story is neither obtained in the wealth of his parents nor through any godfather but is due to the grace of the Almighty Father, diligence, hard work, mental depth and spartan self discipline.
Jimoh Ibrahim, through an unusual commitment to knowledge, has nine University degrees in different fields of learning, five of them from three world best Universities – (Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard).
The Araba of Ikale Land, as he is fondly called by his admirers, is a Lawyer, Tax Consultant, Real Estate Mogul, Business Man, Bank Owner, Tourism Inventor, Lecturer, Motivator, Hotelier, Consultant to the IMF, United Nations Resource Person, Philanthropist, and an Insurance Guru, among others.
Besides his business forays, his educational attainments and cerebral acumen are unprecedented.
A graduate of the prestigious Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife where he has been honoured with Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa), he remains the first and youngest to be honoured either as an alumnus or a graduate of that prestigious University in its 61 years of existence.
Recently, he was decorated with Doctor of Business at the University of Cambridge as the first man on Earth to accomplish such feat in 800 years of the institution’s establishment.
Jimoh Ibrahim has shown great confidence in the economy of Nigeria going by his huge investments in all sectors of the country’s economy, ranking him side by side with the Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola and Mike Adenuga of this world.
When he acquired NICON Insurance through the Bureau of Public Enterprises as an insurance operator, he paid over N6 billion to the pensioners in the first few years of its operations.
Today, he is the highest individual employer of labour in his home Ondo State with over 1,000 workers (skilled and unskilled) working daily at the construction site of the first Private University in the entire Ondo South Senatorial District, University of Fortune, Igbotako, which was established by him.
It is important to emphasise that University of Fortune, Igbotako is sitting on 150 hectares of land, with all the projects in the University at about 80 percent completion stage. Also, the University’s Faculty of Law Building is reputed to be the largest in the history of the country.
To tackle perennial blackout in Ondo South Senatorial District, including the University community and other neighbouring towns like Igbotako and Ilu Titun among others, he made an independent provision for power supply from Omotosho Power Plant in order to eliminate the age long darkness in the district.
Though, a Nigerian from Igbotako in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State, the President and People of Sao Tome and Principe found him worthy to be appointed as that country’s Ambassador to Nigeria, a gesture he has reciprocated by employing over 6,000 citizens of that country in various investments established in the country.
In 2020, he donated a whopping N40 million to the Government of Ondo State during the Covid-19 Pandemic to fight the scourge. Not only that, he assisted his home Okitipupa Local Government with N10 million in rebuilding the Local Government Secretariat, which was damaged by hoodlums during the bloody #EndSARS protest.
Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim has just been announced as the youngest and richest man in Ondo State and the eighth richest man in Nigeria with assets worth over $1.1 billion.
Currently, he is in Washington DC, United States, attending the World Bank/ IMF Auxillary meeting on special invitation.
Fellow Ondo Southerners, with Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (CFR), I give you my words. We shall have a story of light not darkness; a story of decency and dignity not depravity; a story of accomplishments not failure; a story of prosperity not servitude.
May the Almighty Father guide us to choose wisely.
*Credit : Martins Fasusi, Research Assistant to Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (CFR) and Member Aseyori Media Team
